The invention relates to a travel route planner system and method.
It is a difficult task to arrange complex travel plans for individual users. Such users often have several preferances of varying importance to the user. It would be desirable to construct a suitable travel plan for a user automatically based on these preferences.
In broad terms the invention comprises a method of planning a travel route comprising the steps of maintaining in a memory a reference database comprising one or more travel data sets, each travel data set representing a travel option from a travel origin to a travel destination and comprising an origin identifier and a destination identifier; obtaining one or more travel preferences for a travel route from a user; retrieving one or more travel data sets from the reference database to construct one or more candidate travel plans; calculating a plurality of penalty values based on the user travel preferences, each penalty value associated with a corresponding travel data set; and selecting one or more candidate travel plans so as to minimise the sum of penalty values associated with the travel data sets of a candidate travel plan.
In broad terms in another form the invention comprises a travel route planner comprising a memory in which is stored a reference database comprising one or more data sets, each data set representing a travel option from a travel origin to a travel destination and comprising an origin identifier and a destination identifier; a data entry component arranged to obtain one or more travel preferences for a travel route from a user; a retrieval component arranged to retrieve one or more travel data sets from the reference database to construct one or more candidate travel plans; a penalty calculator arranged to calculate a plurality of penalty values based on the user travel preferences, each penalty value associated with a corresponding travel data set; and a selection component arranged to select one or more candidate travel plans so as to minimise the sum of penalty values associated with the travel data sets of a candidate travel plan.
In another form in broad terms the invention comprises a travel route planner computer program comprising a reference database comprising one or more travel data sets, each travel data set representing a travel option from a travel origin to a travel destination and comprising an origin identifier and a destination identifier; a data entry form programmed to obtain one or more travel preferences for a travel route from a user; a retrieval query programmed to retrieve one or more travel data sets from the reference database to construct one or more candidate travel plans; a penalty calculation function programmed to calculate a plurality of penalty values based on the user travel preferences, each penalty value associated with a corresponding travel data set; a selection algorithm programmed to select one or more candidate travel plans so as to minimise the sum of penalty values associated with the travel data sets of a candidate travel plan.